Genomics Boom Continues

Los Angeles-based market-analysis company DeciBio predicts that the global genomics life science research tools market will grow some 6 percent over the next 5 years, reaching $8.9 billion by 2016, reported GenomeWeb Daily News. Part of this rise will be supported by the grown of the next-generation sequencing market, which DeciBio estimated to increase by 16 percent annually, reaching $2.25 billion by 2016, according to a new report published last week (April 12).

Genomics "is expected to be the fastest growing segment in the life science research tools space," Stéphane Budel, a partner in DeciBio, told GenomeWeb.

The report noted how technological advancements had driven down the price of genome sequencing from $3 billion a decade ago to just $3,000 today. In the future, such technologies will be applied more and more in a clinical setting, looking for disease-causing mutations in cancer biopsies, for example.

Other areas expected to grow in coming years include digital PCR, quantitative PCR, and proteomics. Much of this growth will come from outside the United States and Europe, the report noted, with demand for such technologies increasing in Brazil, Russia, India, and China by 5 to 15 percent annually.